Luciano learns quicklyand this first part of 2024 bears witness to it. And it also took him little time to tame an uncomfortable and unexplored ‘terrain’ like the grass of Wimbledon. In his first career appearance at the Championships, Luciano Darderi won a complicated match, against a tough tennis player, and with very little confidence with the surface. “For me these are the first matches on grass – he explained during the press conference – I am happy because honestly I did not expect to be able to play like this in the last three weeks. Here, in Halle, in Mallorca I think I have shown that I can do well even on such a difficult surface. Having won today is special”.
The opening match on the lawns of Church Road she had started uphill with the home wild card – and therefore well trained in the secrets of the meadows – Choinski: “Down two sets to one I didn’t have good feelings – he explains -, I had a mental decline after the rain stop, as had already happened in Paris. Luckily I recovered and in the fourth set I got back into the game. At 6-5 in the fourth set I played a great game and that helped me. During the second rain stop I went back to the locker room and looked at myself in the mirror. I told myself to start with a stronger head and not to make the same mistake as the first stop. I convinced myself that I could win and that helped me”.
As a pure terra-digger, Luciano is still studying the secrets of the grass: “The serve and the back are fundamental weapons – his analysis of the surface – moving is different but after three weeks I think I’m already doing it better. There are only a few weeks on grass but in the next few years I think it could become a good surface for me. It takes time and matches but I think I can have fun in the future. It’s all differentthe movements, the exchanges, never more than 4 or 5, the mobility… even the break points against or in favor are different, you need a different concentration. My surface is clay because I have always played there. To climb the rankings, when there was the swing on grass or hard courts, I only played challengers. Now that the rankings are good I will play everything, hard courts, grass, indoor”.
Darderi was one of the nicest surprises of the tour this season: “I’m proud of everything I’ve done in this first part of the season – he explains – qualifying for the Olympics is a wonderful achievement for any athlete, then playing here, in Rome, in Paris… From 130 I’ve gone up to 35/36, it’s wonderful, I’ve worked hard to do it and I’m enjoying it”.
Lorenzo Musetti awaits him in the second round: “I lost in the semi-final in Turin – he says – he is a great player and I respect him a lot. Last week he reached the final at Queens and more generally on grass he has always achieved great results. I will try to do well, it’s a shame that there are two derbies in the 2nd round, we were unlucky, because two will remain out”.
At Wimbledon they don’t know him very well, he smiles and quickly tells us about his life: “I went to Argentine school but as a child we only spoke Italian with my father and grandfather – he says – I learned it like this. I grew up in the myth of Del Potro, when I was little in Argentina there was the Delpo boom, as now there is that of Sinner in Italy. Then growing up I appreciated Federer’s style, spectacular and beautiful to watch. I remember the great match he and Nadal played here in 2008. The most important match of the season? At the Foro Italico with Shapovalov, it was the first time on Centre Court, 76 in the third set… I think it was the best, I don’t know if I played very well but it was special. The first in Rome, in front of a big crowd and all my family”.
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